Friday, June 9, 2017

Am I Crazy?

I've taught first grade for the past 10 years. I've been lucky to not only be able to stay in the same grade level, but I also got to stay in the same classroom for that time.

BUT....I offered to move down to Kindergarten for the 2017-2018 school year! Not only will I be switching grade levels after 10 years, I'm also switching classrooms.

I already moved all of my stuff down to my classroom. Thank goodness for my little first graders who love helping. They were like my little minions on the last week of school! But, GEEZ, I didn't realize how much stuff I've accumulated over 10 years in first grade.

So...the idea of teaching Kindergarten KINDA gives me anxiety. I'm confident in myself as a teacher, but the change freaks me out. In first grade, I had the standards memorized...I knew what to teach and when to teach it - whether or not I had a pacing guide. I knew how to differentiate all of the lessons and, with so many years of teaching the same topics, I was able to easily think on my feet and switch it up when things weren't working for my students. I knew little tricks to teaching certain things. I knew what worked for those little 7 year old minds.

I won't have the same experience with the content in Kindergarten - but, at this point in my career, I needed a change that scared me a little - which is why I offered to switch grade levels. But, some days I'm like WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF!?!

Help me out - any amazing Kindergarten teachers that I should be following?! Any awesome must-have Kindergarten resources on TPT? Any advice from the veteran Kindergarten teachers??